So for those of you who don't know, this past week my computer basically got systematically destroyed with a most malicious virus. It truly isn't a tale for the faint hearted, especially because now I'm running Ubuntu. Me. Shani. It actually isn't that scary. At all. So far.
It all started a few weeks ago with facebook telling me on occasion that spammy links were posted, except the only facebook links I would click were youtube videos, so that was seemingly impossible. I just kind of ignored it, everything else seemed fine. But then, Monday morning, everything went black and then it told me I had errors on my hard disk or something and that I didn't have enough RAM, but to fix the errors I had to purchase the advanced module. Ummmm....what? Shit. Virus. What do I do? What do I do? I called my friend Berin up, who advised me to go to IT services. Except here, all tech stuff to do with viruses is done through the campus computer store. Long story short, they took my laptop for 2 days and I was out $130 or so by the end of it. Oh yeah, I didn't have this much money so I had to call my dad in the middle of the day close to tears for it. Stage 1 complete.
So then I kept on getting calls from the tech guy, let's call him Laul, saying that my laptop was being quirky and he wanted to reformat. By this time, MULTIPLE people had told me I was an idiot for paying someone and that they'd help out. Only one pulled through. I still owe Ken a lot of beer :P.
So, anyway, Laul kept on insisting that he wanted to reformat it and I kept on saying no. So I got it back from him and started gingerly playing around with it, seemed fine....kinda. But it wasn't. Every time I would search for something in google, it would redirect me. Freaking useless tech guys for the win. Started scanning with several different softwares, scans which take like 6 hours to run, maybe less, maybe more. All found stuff and got rid of it, but that virus STILL hadn't gone.
Frustrated, after a couple days, I started googling "viruses that redirect", and if you have some spare time, do it too. Turn out the google redirect virus is a bitch and a half, with a bastard on the side. Very malicious, impossible to detect. Hell, even programs that target it specifically weren't allowed to run in the same computer. So then the IT guy in my lab (not Laul) and I decided to do a system recovery, however, it would only allow me to go back to the 7th (the day the virus first exploded on my computer). And when we tried to do a system restore to the factory settings, well, long story short, we found out the virus had corrupted our backup recovery drive, but allowed a PARTIAL reformatting, so basically now I had no OS. That was the final "up yours" the virus gave me. What to do, what to do. No recovery discs in this province, and no computer. WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO ALL WEEKEND?
Two hours of stress later, Ken suggested Ubuntu. I had no idea what it was. Now I do. I went from not having a computer to have a computer and it was pretty awesome to have a computer, to be honest. What a week, what a week, what a week. I survived with a smile and a swift kick in the ass.
What I learned? That people without computers go to bed at 9 pm because there isn't anything to do that isn't expensive. Trust me, 2 movies, 3 books, 4 beers later, it gets pretty up there.
Cheers!
It all started a few weeks ago with facebook telling me on occasion that spammy links were posted, except the only facebook links I would click were youtube videos, so that was seemingly impossible. I just kind of ignored it, everything else seemed fine. But then, Monday morning, everything went black and then it told me I had errors on my hard disk or something and that I didn't have enough RAM, but to fix the errors I had to purchase the advanced module. Ummmm....what? Shit. Virus. What do I do? What do I do? I called my friend Berin up, who advised me to go to IT services. Except here, all tech stuff to do with viruses is done through the campus computer store. Long story short, they took my laptop for 2 days and I was out $130 or so by the end of it. Oh yeah, I didn't have this much money so I had to call my dad in the middle of the day close to tears for it. Stage 1 complete.
So then I kept on getting calls from the tech guy, let's call him Laul, saying that my laptop was being quirky and he wanted to reformat. By this time, MULTIPLE people had told me I was an idiot for paying someone and that they'd help out. Only one pulled through. I still owe Ken a lot of beer :P.
So, anyway, Laul kept on insisting that he wanted to reformat it and I kept on saying no. So I got it back from him and started gingerly playing around with it, seemed fine....kinda. But it wasn't. Every time I would search for something in google, it would redirect me. Freaking useless tech guys for the win. Started scanning with several different softwares, scans which take like 6 hours to run, maybe less, maybe more. All found stuff and got rid of it, but that virus STILL hadn't gone.
Frustrated, after a couple days, I started googling "viruses that redirect", and if you have some spare time, do it too. Turn out the google redirect virus is a bitch and a half, with a bastard on the side. Very malicious, impossible to detect. Hell, even programs that target it specifically weren't allowed to run in the same computer. So then the IT guy in my lab (not Laul) and I decided to do a system recovery, however, it would only allow me to go back to the 7th (the day the virus first exploded on my computer). And when we tried to do a system restore to the factory settings, well, long story short, we found out the virus had corrupted our backup recovery drive, but allowed a PARTIAL reformatting, so basically now I had no OS. That was the final "up yours" the virus gave me. What to do, what to do. No recovery discs in this province, and no computer. WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO ALL WEEKEND?
Two hours of stress later, Ken suggested Ubuntu. I had no idea what it was. Now I do. I went from not having a computer to have a computer and it was pretty awesome to have a computer, to be honest. What a week, what a week, what a week. I survived with a smile and a swift kick in the ass.
What I learned? That people without computers go to bed at 9 pm because there isn't anything to do that isn't expensive. Trust me, 2 movies, 3 books, 4 beers later, it gets pretty up there.
Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment